GRIEF

ON immemorial altitudes august

Grief holds her high dominion. Bold the feet

That climb unblenching to that stern retreat

Whence, looking down, man knows himself but dust.

There lie the mightiest passions, earthward thrust

Beneath her regnant footstool, and there meet

Pale ghosts of buried longings that were sweet,

With many an abdicated “shall” and “must.”

For there she rules omnipotent, whose will

Compels a mute acceptance of her chart;

Who holds the world, and lo! it cannot fill

Her mighty hand; who will be served apart

With uncommunicable rites, and still

Surrender of the undivided heart.